1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for producing snacks, such as fried chips, from dough by forming the dough into a continuous elongated form, such as a ribbon, web, rope or the like, which is cut into pieces for frying or other further processing to form the snacks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A variety of farinaceous dough materials are used in the production of snack products. Such snack doughs are typically made up of corn meal, potato meal or flour meal, although other starch-containing doughs may be used. The water and starch content of dough will determine many characteristics of the finished snack product and the handling characteristics of the dough before it is cooked. For some snack products, the dough material used is sticky and therefore it tends to adhere to cutting equipment used to divide the dough into snack-sized pieces. In addition to adhering to cutting equipment, individual pieces of dough often stick together during frying, resulting in an undesirable multi-component product.
To overcome the sticking problems, emulsifiers have been added to the dough material to alter the texture and sticking characteristics of the dough. Examples of such emulsifiers include lecithin, monoglycerides and diglycerides. Using emulsifiers increases the cost of snack product production and may alter the texture or even the taste of a finished product.